Blog

How to Create the Best Customer Experience with CRM

by Corie Kaftalovich

February 24, 2011

The most vital asset to any company’s success is their customers. Whether a company has 10 customers or 10,000, it is imperative for every one of them to be tended to and kept satisfied. As the business world increasingly gets pulled into Web 2.0, companies have to try harder than ever to build and maintain customer relationships online. The question then is what can companies use to ensure that these relationships are not only created but nurtured for the long-term? The answer is: CRM.

Though CRM is not the answer for everything, it definitely plays a crucial role in managing and optimizing customer relationships. Moreover, the more advanced the features and functionality of CRM solutions become, the more tools companies acquire to create the best customer experience.

Get Out What You Put In

The only way that the use of a CRM solution can contribute to the creation of a customer experience is if the users truly put forth the effort to inputting and updating the system on a regular basis. It’s one thing to enter in a customer’s contact information, but it’s a whole other thing when that information is accompanied by detailed comments about each point of contact, specific requests and requirements and some additional personal information.

A company should strive to create a complete record of how they acquired each and every customer and retained them over time. Essentially, each customer record can be looked upon as a 360-degree view of the customer’s relationship with the company. This information can then be used to extract what that specific customer wants and values from the company. From there, t
he company can sort and categorize their customers based upon specific wants and needs to conduct targeted sales or marketing efforts.

The Power of Personalization

Once your customer information is organized and categorized in a particular way, you can then start using the powerful features offered by the CRM solution. Sending your customers the same, generic information on a bi-weekly or monthly basis will never produce results because they don’t see what value they specifically get out of it. It’s imperative for customers to feel unique and to gauge that the company sees them as different, otherwise, their satisfaction will be low and their engagement in the company’s community is minimal.

Thankfully, some CRM solutions, like Luxor CRM, offer powerful analytical tools that can slice and dice customer data to be used for creating personalized marketing or sales initiatives. For example, if your company is attending a trade show for small businesses within a particular region such as Toronto, you can use the CRM solution to consolidate a list of customers who are considered a small business and live within Toronto or the GTA. The customers receiving this email see the immediate value in attending this event and get a sense that the sending company really cares about them.

That simple marketing effort not only nourishes the relationship with the customer, but also intrinsically creates a positive, valued experience.

Quality over Quantity

Creating a great customer experience is not a matter of constantly conducting personalized marketing efforts but instead producing highly valuable initiatives on an ongoing basis. In other words, it’s about quality, not quantity.

CRM solutions offer automated features that can ensure your customers are consistently reached out to in pre-determined intervals. Th
ese features should not be used in overkill but instead optimized on to increase productivity and strengthen customer interactions. If your customers feel as though their experience with your company is consistently positive and valuable, the likelihood of building a strong customer base and brand is boundless. Furthermore, you can build a community around your brand and from there the customers will be knocking on your door.